Thoughts from Chris
For most of us, our opinions have only as much reach as the range of our voice. But there are folks out there in positions to implement policy, and those opinions are worth highlighting.
I asked current US Speedskating board member/national sprint team skater/& good guy Chris Needham, for his opinion on the recent thriving discussion. Here is what he had to say:
On the topic of Inline to ice, I think that it can be a very good thing. There is no doubt that some of our best skaters have come from the Inline world, and I support the cross pollination of the sports.
One must realize that for every 1 great Inliner there are 5 who quit within a year and 4 who go on to be good skaters, but not great, we need to improve this ratio. These numbers are still much better than the current USS farm system. The problem that most Inliners have is that they think that they can walk into this sport and dominate like Chad did. When they don’t do this they get frustrated and usually quit. The ones that make it accept that they are learning something new and that it will take lots of hard work and commitment. Our best Inline to Ice athletes like KC, Jen, Derek, and Joey worked amazingly hard to get to the level they are at. Even Chad realizes that it takes a lot of work to maintain his position at that top level.
I also think that everyone looks to much at Inline for the next great thing, we can’t forget about the worlds of Hockey, and Figure Skating. Cindy Klaussen, Eric Flaim, Tucker Fredricks, Marc Pelchat, Dan Weinstein, Myself, John Loquai, Andrew Love, and probably a ton of others I missed came from the world of hockey. I know a lot of former skaters, especially women, an area that we need more depth, came from figure skating.
We also need to develop a strong farm system that starts with our local clubs. USS’s role in this should be to help develop better “real life” coaching education for our clubs, not to finance local clubs and coaches. Clubs need to step up by recruiting and developing new local skaters of all ages and abilities. We need to bring back the days when you went to a competition wearing your club skin, not a Cat 1 skin. The Inline world is a perfect example, everyone wears their team colors. We all look like clones of each other out there.
In order for USS to prosper we need to expand our recruiting not just to the world of In-line, but also to Hockey, Figure Skating, and grassroots development that starts at our clubs. We can’t get by looking for ready made stars. We would be like the Yankees if we did this, they spend everything on winning right now and nothing on the future. That is why the Red Sox will prosper in the long run.
Train Hard,
Chris Needham
It is worth mentioning that I have seen this proud member of the Red Sox Nation skate 24 second laps in his BoSox hat. How it stays on his head at the 35+ mph velocity this elite athlete travels is a mystery of physics (or perhaps a mystery of faith???).
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